Abstract

We have studied the electrical transport properties of intrinsic InN nanowires using an electrical nanoprobing technique in a scanning electron microscope environment. It is found that such intrinsic InN nanowires exhibit an ohmic conduction at low bias and a space charge limited conduction at high bias. It is further derived that such InN nanowires can exhibit a free carrier concentration as low as and possess a very large electron mobility in the range of 8000–12 000 cm2/V s, approaching the theoretically predicted maximum electron mobility at room temperature. In addition, charge traps are found to distribute exponentially just below the conduction band edge, with a characteristic energy .

Received 25 November 2012Accepted 05 February 2013Published online 19 February 2013

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de recherch sur la nature et les technologies, and US Army Research Office under Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0477. Part of the work was performed in the Micro-Fabrication Facility at McGill University.